The Titanic a Century Ago

I did take the on-off bus yesterday, but somehow or another managed to lose my ticket after the third stop.  It was okay, though, as I’d seen what I really wanted to see.  There were a couple more would have like to’s, but as it was already 3:30 and the last tour out was only an hour away…  I’d waited for quite a bit for the bus that I had lost my ticket on, which was taking its own sweet time in showing up.  Finally deciding to say the hell with it, I headed out on foot.  There were a couple of things that we’d passed at the beginning of the tour that I wanted to check out, too.

Titanic Visitors Centre

The highlight of the tour was the stop at the dock where the Titanic was built.  They’ve built a huge visitors centre at the site where her keel was built.  It’s supposed to be shaped like her bow, but as the tour guide remarked, it looks more like the iceberg she hit.  It’s quite the place, in any case.  They run some walking tours and also an indoor tour that takes you through her story.  As I’d already been to the Titanic exhibition in Victoria a few years back, I gave that a pass.  After wandering about the centre for a bit, I walked over to the slip.  There are few signs that remain.  The ramps, the gantry rails and the iron uprights are the only things left that mark her birth.  At the head of the ramps, there is a memorial to all those that lost their lives; two long stretches of glass with names engraved on them.  So many that they fill the heads of both ramps for their entire width.



After waiting for a thundering storm to pass (no pun intended), it was time to head to my next stop.  The pump house and the dry dock slip where she was graved and fitted for her boilers, propellers and the like.  The visitor’s centre there also held tours and that one I decided to take.  The guide was beyond excellent. A true lover of the Titanic, he made the place come alive not only with his words, but with photographs that had been taken at the time.  With those, I could visualize her sitting there, swarms of men fitting her out for her maiden voyage.



The Titanic Dry Dock



The tour took us to the bottom of her slip 44 feet below.  With her keel on the bottom, she rose to three times the height of the White Star building nearby.  Her anchors were nearly the size of one of the support buildings beside the pump house.  Even with the photos, I had a hard time comprehending the size of her.  Like my guide, I’ve been fascinated with her since I first read about her when I was eight or nine.  That’s never changed.  I watch and read everything I can get my hands or eyes on.  To be at the place where she was is indescribable.  Even now, the pride in her building shines through the eyes of Belfastians.

I’ve known about her end for years.  I’ve read about her beginning for years, but to be here….